During
the past decades, the societies of the Near East (comprising the Middle
East and North Africa) underwent rapid and extensive transformations of
their social structures and economic systems. Within only two
generations a majority of the people of the Near East shifted from rural
to urban settings. This fast pace of social transformation has created
new opportunities and hopes, but it has also generated major new
challenges for rural farmers, villagers, pastor lists, and nomads who
depend for their livelihood on agrarian economies.

In 1981, a Near East Regional Conference was organized by the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which passed a
resolution requesting action to establish such a regional Centre. CARDNE
was launched following a 1983 FAO-sponsored meeting of representatives
and observers from 18 Near Eastern states, also attended by observers
from the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World
Food Program. The agreement to establish CARDNE came into effect in 1987
after it was ratified by six countries. The Regional Centre on
Agrarian Reform and Rural Development for the Near East (CARDNE) was
established to address the needs, rights and aspirations of the rural
populations of the Near East